The invention relates to the field of the motor industry. More specifically, it relates to a hinge assembly for a swinging side door of a motor vehicle comprising a built-in door stop.
In general, the motor industry uses three elements for attaching the swinging side door of a vehicle, pivoting it, and keeping it in a predefined angular position. These elements are an upper hinge and a lower hinge, both allowing for the attachment and pivoting of the door, and a door stop system allowing the door to be held in one or more predefined angular positions. The door stop system also has the function of stopping the door when it reaches its wide open position.
In certain instances, at least one of the two hinges comprises a door stop device which is built into it. Such door hinges with built-in door stops are described, in particular, in the following documents: DE 29806087, DE 19642597, EP 0 794 308, DE 29604089, DE 19606186 and EP 0 769 600. They comprise in particular a wire spring working in torsion and wound around a series of rollers.
The hinges with built-in door stops that already exist on the market have various drawbacks. Firstly, they are bulkier than conventional hinges because of the presence of the door stop system. The vehicle environment has therefore to set aside a substantial volume in order to allow this type of hinge to be fitted. Furthermore, because the door stop devices comprise metal parts rubbing on one another, they give out a banging or grinding noise when the door is being manoeuvred. Motor manufacturers now wish to eliminate this type of noise which the user finds unpleasant. In addition, the mutual rubbing of metal parts wears off the anti-corrosion coating that they might have before being fitted; this then creates the possibility of corrosion of these very parts. Finally, with a view to lessening the operating noise of the door stop system, it is commonplace for this system to be greased at the end of vehicle assembly. However, it is periodically necessary to renew this grease during vehicle servicing operations, and motor manufacturers would like to eliminate this greasing stage. Furthermore, dirt builds up inside the grease in the course of the life of the vehicle, and this may lead to abrasion of the parts as they rub.
The object of the invention is to provide motor manufacturers with a hinge assembly for a swinging door of a vehicle comprising a built-in door stop system which is free of at least some of the aforementioned drawbacks. In particular, such a device should optimally be of small bulk, should not cause undesirable noise when operating, and should not require greasing during the life of the vehicle.
To this end, a subject of the invention is a hinge assembly for a swinging door of a motor vehicle, characterized in that it comprises:
a first knuckle, known as the fixed knuckle, comprising a first part, the overall orientation of which is a horizontal straight line, equipped with at least one horizontal drilling allowing it to be attached to a fixed part of the bodywork of the said vehicle, and a second part, the overall orientation of which is a horizontal straight line approximately perpendicular to that of the said first part, and the end of which comprises a vertical drilling to house the pin about which the hinge pivots;
a second knuckle, known as the moving knuckle, the overall orientation of which is vertical, comprising, at each of its ends, drillings allowing it to be attached to the said door and comprising two approximately horizontal flat zones, each provided with a vertical drilling so that the hinge pin can pass through them and each comprising a notched cam;
two pressing rollers intended to be kept in contact with a corresponding cam of the moving knuckle;
a spring held in the said fixed knuckle and having two vertical branches inserted in the said rollers and working mainly in bending so as to cause the said rollers to exert pressure on the said cams; and
a hinge pin articulating the moving knuckle to the fixed knuckle.
As will have been understood, the invention consists in equipping the moving knuckle with two notched cams against which a spring, held by the fixed knuckle and working mainly in bending, presses two rollers.